Ref Review 2012/13: Which two refs helped Reading the most?

By Walter Broeckx

This article is part of the series of the Referee Review 2013. You can find links to earlier articles on the bottom of this article.

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Having dealt with the different teams and after having examined all the Premier League refs (leading to the best ref of the season according to the views of our referee reviewers) we now bring you an easy guide as to who is good or bad to have as a ref for each individual team.

We will of course bring you this in order so that from now on if you see that your team is playing and there is a certain ref assigned you can see in a blink of an eye if this ref has a bad or a good history with your team. At least in the season 2012/2013. And if all goes well we will even try to add the bias from the season before in to each article. And that way you can see if there are any possible situations that return from one year to the next.

And we do this because it might well be that some referee performances are a one off. But if a ref has the same bias against a team it might show something more. For if a ref has a big bias in favour of a team it also is saying something about that ref.

A little word of explanation about the graphics below. The ultimate referee performance would be that the bias score (which is based on the wrong decisions) of around zero. Alas you will find very few of those scores in the total series. So the zero line will be the middle line of each graphic.

If a ref has positive bias score for the team involved you will see a name (of the ref) and a green line and a number. That is the bias number for that ref.

On the other hand if the ref had a negative bias you will once again see a name but then with a red line and a number. The negative bias score for that ref.

The longer the lines, the higher the number and the higher the bias that ref produces. Short lines are better and would be nicer for us all, if only the world worked that way. I also included a little table in the graphic just with the names and with a red or green label. This is for any readers who want to have a quick look at the names as sometimes the numbers can get in the way.

Next in our series is Reading

As Reading is a team that only stayed in the PL for one season we don’t have anything to compare with over two seasons.

But still some interesting numbers we found. Let us start with the positive bias from 3 refs.

The score from Marinner is still a bit acceptable.

But we cannot say the same of Jones and Taylor. What an amazing big bias in their favour. Totally out of control if you ask me.

But we have to also notice that 6 of the 9 refs we had reviewed had a negative bias against Reading.

The bias from Dean and Foy was rather small. So no complaints here.

But from Webb, Friend and Probert the numbers are getting over the top. Already a very big negative bias against Reading.

But the worst ref for Reading last season was Lee Mason. What an incredible bad bias against Reading.

1 comment to Ref Review 2012/13: Which two refs helped Reading the most?

Thanks Walter. And another thing I find myself doing automatically on every graph is comparing the total reds with the total greens. The balance, in this case minus more than 20, gives a feeling about how refs regard a team in general. Arsenal’s balance figure will be most interesting!